Occasionally, I work with companies that provide their products for review purposes.
As my children entered elementary school, I noticed that some of the techniques and learning tools were unfamiliar to me. I introduced my children to reading and vocabulary words by having the sound out letters and syllables. In school, some words were called sight words. These words would be required to know instantaneous, no sounding out. Over time, our family found it helpful to have many flash cards or vocabulary cards to re-enforce the kids' understanding of these words.
With our every busy schedules, the car became a great place to practice sight words. Unfortunately, I would never see the flash cards as the kids would be practicing them. So, the kids could be answering "his" for "her" or "here" for "there" and I would never know.It can be harder to un-learn an incorrect item than to learn it correctly first.
Recently, I was introduced to the first voice recognition app called Sight Words. This app, available for a $1.99 purchase at the App store, using voice recognition software to help kids learn sight words. Easy to use for young users, the app introduces sight words and asks the user to repeat. The voice recognition software can identify correct repetition. There are several levels of difficulty ranging from pre-school through third grade. The sight words used are based on Dolch Words List, which are 220 service words that have to be easily recognized to achieve reading fluency.
My kids enjoyed this app because of the little monkey who guides the user through the practice or teaching, depending on the mode. The monkey carefully listens the spoken word. If the word is correct, he applauds. After five correct words, the user gets to play a puzzle. The app tracks correct and incorrect words. Users can practice incorrect words to gain mastery.
Personally, I like the break of the puzzle during practice. Kids can get bored or overwhelmed by too much work. It can lead them to fight the learning process. The puzzle and the fun monkey make learning more a game. It makes them more likely to return time and again to this learning app.
The Sight Words app is available for purchase in the iTunes store. It is $1.99 and is available for the iphone, iTouch and iPad.
Put down the boring flash cards and have fun with your vocabulary thanks to Sight Words.
Disclosure: I wrote this post on behalf of the app company. All opinions are my own.
Oh my goodness... I love that this is an app that you can take anywhere... I am totally downloading it for my kids
ReplyDeleteI hope they release the app for android soon. We use an android based tablet for learning here, and this would be great for my soon-to-be 3 year old.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to download this. What a great app. My daughter can use a refresher during the summer break.
ReplyDeleteHow cool, I'm always at a loss as to what apps I should download for the kids but this seems like a good one.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a great app to use with the kids!
ReplyDeleteI also love the portability of this app! It would be great for classrooms too that have the right technology!
ReplyDeleteI love educational apps for kids! This is one I would definitely use!
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